Out we come.

Last year at this time the same president of the United States who is currently losing his job fight in front of us stood before a cheering crowd at the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Washington, D.C., and urged people to come out. His words weren't dead-on about it--they never are. But his point was clear: People won't know who you are if you don't tell them. You've got to do your part. Come out.

Whoever wrote his speech understood the basic dilemma of every gay person: "It's nobody's business but mine" versus "There's strength in numbers." It's no big deal, but in a world powered by prejudice, it's every thing. Like it or not, the personal is political.

This month gay men and lesbians are celebrating ten years of this struggle for visibility. We call it National Coming Out Day. First observed on October 11, 1988, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the second march on Washington, the event has pulled in the talents and energies of celebrities such as Keith Haring (who donated his now-famous image of a person dancing out of the closet), the late Dick Sargent, Sheila Kuehl, Amanda Bearse, Greg Louganis, Dan Butler, Melissa Etheridge, Candace Gingrich, Sean Sasser, Chastity Bono, and Betty DeGeneres. The message is simple: Lying about yourself takes a lot of energy and makes you feel shame. Nothing is worth that.

At a time when there is pressure to push away gayness (from within our movement as well as from the usual hatefulness outside), at a time when even a new Harris Poll gives us the impression that coming out doesn't really change how others think or vote on gay issues, The Advocate takes a closer look at this brave or foolish act of telling others, "Yep, I'm gay."

In a no-holds-barred interview with Chastity Bono, who experienced outing firsthand and served as the National Coming Out Project spokesperson in 1996, we learn about her new life and her new book on coming out to your parents (Family Outing) as well as her unfortunate saga with Ellen and those two pesky words Chastity swears she never said: "too gay." We also take a look at the history of coming out in The Advocate-once the only place you could do it--as well as the evolution of outing from its origins as a political tool to the tabloid fiesta it's now become. Additionally we examine the practice of outing celebrities in biographies that appear after they're dead and invite author Gore Vidal to give us his short, sharp twist on the whole effort.

But regardless of where you stand on the process of coming out, it's still all we have in our journey to be, and share, ourselves. And, naturally, we all look forward to the day it's completely unnecessary.